The other issue where I differed with the majority of the committee was on the electoral system. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have long argued for elections to be held using the single transferable vote method, giving meaningful power and choice to voters, ending party control through closed list elections, and ensuring that Members are more accountable to their constituents than to their parties. The committee considered several electoral systems, including D'Hondt and Sainte-Laguë. The expert panel's findings, which the committee considered in detail, found, and I quote,

'that the D’Hondt electoral formula generally produces outcomes which are less proportional than those using the Sainte-Laguë formula, and sometimes less proportional than the current electoral system.'

Unquote. The proposal before us hands power to parties rather than voters, and what concerns me is the very different track we're going down to that proposed by the expert panel and the Senedd committee on reform. Both recommended, based on the available evidence, how to deliver very clear principles of reform—a very different model to that proposed by Labour and Plaid Cymru. So, I do really have to question the rationale behind going in a very different direction to the evidence, and I would ask, Counsel General, that you give clear reasons why the previous expert panel recommendations were rejected.

I'm going to finish very soon. I would urge Labour and Plaid Cymru to look again at the electoral method and make at least provisions for flexible lists to give voters greater choice. I don't just worry for the sake of the technicality of the proposals: this is our opportunity to kick-start a new deliberative, proportional, diverse politics, driven by accountability and transparency.

To conclude, Dirprwy Lywydd, I do support the principle behind reform. The Welsh Liberal Democrats and I are committed to delivering a Senedd that can support a vibrant democracy, a confident self-governing Wales and a thriving Wales today and in the future. I do have reservations about the detail, and I hope that the Senedd can work together—let's revert to that real cross-party working together that I hold so dear—and collectively build on and adapt these early proposals to ensure that this package of reform truly delivers real democracy for Wales, as my mum would have wanted. Diolch yn fawr iawn.